‘All Blacks on the right track’ – Beauden Barrett

David Skippers

All Blacks full-back Beauden Barrett believes the side is on the right track in developing its game-plan as they prepare for their Bledisloe Cup decider against Australia at Eden Park on Saturday.

Undeterred by the 47-26 loss at Australia’s hands in Perth last week, a result made worse by the ordering off of his brother Scott, Barrett is confident that the world champions will bounce back this weekend.

“I’ve got so much faith in what we’re doing and the desire we have to play for each other and when it comes down to the 80th minute I know we can stick together and work hard to ultimately get our performance.”

Part of his belief was based around the try he scored in the second half in Perth.

“That was one of the few passages we had where we built some pressure and looked after some ball, so obviously doing that was a challenge with 14 men on Saturday so if we can get more ball with 15 men in our structure I’m excited with what we can do,” he said.

Barrett said his playmaking role in combination with fly-half Richie Mo’unga was still emerging but he was confident in the progress being made.

“I’ve had a few games now in the 15 jersey so I guess it’s understanding how Richie and I can work well together and that understanding is growing by the minute, by the day,” he explained.

“Ultimately, it requires very similar skill sets, it’s just the tactical side and working with boys like [new wings] George [Bridge] and Sevu [Reece] on Saturday on the outside channels rather than being involved close to the ruck, little things like that.”

While he still had the fly-half thought processes about tactical options, he had faith in Mo’unga’s choices and was still able to offer his options in phase play but, when it came to the shot calling, it was the pivot who made the decisions at set-piece time.

Barrett said that central to their liaison was being aligned to what they were trying to achieve from a team perspective.

“It’s rugby at the end of the day and we try and keep it quite simple out there and if we get to the point on Saturday where we’re playing with free heads and we’re instinctive, that’s where we want to be,” he added.

While Australia had kicked very little ball last weekend that didn’t mean they would continue that policy this week under different conditions. The All Blacks were preparing with both options in mind.

Barrett feels having so much pressure from the New Zealand public for the game was great.

“It’s a good challenge ahead of us and we’re all excited about it. Obviously there’s a lot of hype externally but we’re just going through our processes, like George said, we’re backing our routines and our preparation that we constantly do each week,” he said.

Barrett was confident that Reece and Bridge could make an impact.

“They’ve gone really well for the Crusaders and I love how they back their instincts and I’m sure they’ll do that on Saturday night,” he said.